Everything is relative but for me it was a late run to Luce Bay. After a day spent pottering in the garden and dodging showers the evening looked promising for a bike ride. West is always favourite and I had some idea that I would reach Stranraer but a new road (for me) beckoned as I passed Glen Luce.

It said Stairhaven on the sign but this isn’t it —

Ahh – this is more like it. What looks like an old Millhouse plus a handful of new houses. There’s still some for sale if anyone wants to live at the back of beyond and brave the winter gales off the Irish Sea —

The poser in the pic will pass on staying in this remote spot although they are a public spirited lot and have provided a toilet block so maybe it does get busy round here in the summer but I can’t imagine why.

Unless it’s the views on the way in —

Out of the hamlet and over the hill leads to Luce Bay as I know it. A nice beach and a wide grass verge to park on with views all along the coast when you are not squinting into the low evening sun —

Dead ahead is the Isle of Man which will be a Mecca for motorcyclists in a few weeks time —

This coming weekend sees racing on the public roads of Northern Ireland up by Port Rush. But – I’ve done all that many years ago and my little Honda VFR400 NC30 got a 3rd place there in the early nineties so I don’t see the need to go back there again.

The A75 along which I travelled tonight will be busy with bikers as they make their way to the ferry port at Cairnryan. Crowds in the region of 100,000 are normal and most of them will have travelled from the UK. It all means a big police presence on the A75 this week so I didn’t give them much to wag there fingers at. It was different in the old days when a big Irish police sergeant with a pistol on his hip pulled me in and gave me a severe dressing down.

I was lucky because some of the stunts I pulled while racing for the last ferry of the day should have had me in the Maze Prison. No worries – the big fella was ‘broad-minded’ about it all and I lived to tell the tale 🙂

Late Run on Luce Bay